Simple, humble work

Hello Wise Women!

I have been writing furiously here but the posts are hanging out in my drafts waiting for me to have more time to edit and refine them before I press PUBLISH. I have less time for refining my writing in the spring and summer because my hands and body are busy much of the day with farm work, mothering and housekeeping.

Nevertheless, I wanted to pop in and share something the Lord has been teaching me this past year about His character.

He leads me in the path of righteousness.

The 23rd Psalm is chockerblock full of goodness.
But today I’m solely thinking of this phrase,

He leads me in the path of righteousness.

I consider myself to be a hard-worker, a fixer, a problem-solver….and I think many of you ladies here are the same.
My desire to improve and understand things might even be what has attracted you to my writing.

Maybe like me, you have gone through long stints of self-improvement and possess a desire to better yourself that has left you moderately better, but honestly tired from trying to transform your outer man while your inner one continues to struggles with the same challenges over and over again.


I have prayed about this very thing and God has answered me with Philippians 1:

He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

I think this verse is important to me right now because it is a reminder that it is HE who began the work in me and HE that will finish it.

It is not I who can change myself, but Christ living in me the does the work.
He will lead me in the paths of righteousness, and I mostly need to be willing to listen because the transformation of my old man into a new and resurrected reflection of Christ isn’t within my capability and I don’t actually know the way to get there.

So while trying in earnest to be better is something I believe the Lord has looked upon kindly, it’s not unlike pushing a heavy burden uphill.
I don’t make much progress.
All the while, my shepherd is there willing to lead me in the paths of righteousness, if I will only follow and not go my own way.

It’s really His battle after all.

Jesus told us, “I have overcome the world,” and “It is finished.”
The work of conquering my sin and transforming me by renewing my mind isn’t actually within my wheelhouse-it’s His and it’s done.
Mostly I need to die to myself so that He can be revealed in me.

But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me.
Galatians 1


I’m starting to suspect the grand actions of trying to overhaul myself at times, seeking out books and revelations, new mindset tricks, and ways of being are just early attempts at bringing about a change that ONLY HE can create and there’s plenty of biblical support for this idea.

I believe that there is a much longer conversation here, lots of things to parse out to determine what our responsibilities are before God:
when we are to act vs. when we are to trust and wait on the Lord…

but because I have a history of taking action, putting pressure upon myself to fix things-I don’t shy away from hard work, I have been surprised to learn a new way of being-a way that involves waiting on Him, trusting and receiving and not so much going out and making things happen-UNLESS specifically instructed to do so.
The work appears to be a willingness to be led.

So then what do we do in the meantime?
How do we let Him lead?

I have been asking Him and He shows me simple, humble work.

It’s in focusing on the tasks of the day, doing the things He has put in my path, the work He has assigned me that I am feeling and witnessing a change in myself.

It’s in not concerning myself with thoughts too lofty (Psalm 131) but doing the work He has put in my path.


All that sexy stuff I tried and it’s in dishwashing, milking a cow, folding laundry, making my husband lunch and wiping countertops repeatedly that the change is happening.

How?
I don’t know.

His ways are different than mine.

They make no sense to me and I’m starting to learn that knowing my place is cultivating a greater respect and regard for the ways of my Lord that mystify me and are rooted in nothing logical that I UNDERSTAND.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1

So in short, resting in Him, starting my day with “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done,” and doing everything I do in a day as if I am doing it unto the Lord-which really means just simply putting one foot in front of the other, seems to be creating the MOST progress towards peace and the fruits of the spirit in me that I’ve ever experienced.

How is that?
How can simple humble work of serving the Lord by serving my family be transformative?
I have no idea.
But it is.

I believe it has something to do with obedience.
I believe it’s not unlike David who was prepared to be a king by simply being a shepherd.
I think it’s similar to Mary who was simply called to have faith and trust as she went about her life, growing a baby and mothering the child without fretting or worrying about what will next.
I think it’s just a commitment in the heart to, not my will, but yours, as we go about the humble and unsexy work of being a woman in 2025.

So in short, I believe that He leads us if we are willing to be led and it’s in doing the simple tasks of the day that I am finding a quiet heart and mind that is capable of being led. He has spoken to me more at the sink doing dishes than He ever did when I was doing more grand and what I believed to be impactful things.

It’s simple, but then again the God of the whole earth’s entire existence here was humble and simple, so why am I surprised?


xoxo,

Sarah

In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.
Isaiah 30:15